China says job creation a vital task

China wants to create 85 million jobs and hold its unemployment rate under 5 percent in the next four years, the government said on Friday, in a sign that Beijing is worried industrial unrest could rise as the economy slows. A statement on the central government's website (www.gov.cn) following a cabinet meeting said they wanted to create 85 million jobs in cities by 2015 to accommodate an estimated 40 million rural workers migrating to urban areas.
"To boost employment should be made the priority of our social and economic development," the statement said. The remarks, which echo similar comments by Premier Wen Jiabao in October, underscore the government's determination to rein in any unrest that could be triggered by China's slowing economy as factories struggle with softening global demand.
The government also wants to secure rising incomes for farmers and migrant workers from the countryside as an engine for expanding domestic consumption. Strikes and worker protests have become more common across China, especially as a younger generation of more assertive migrant workers comes to the fore.
But this year has brought no repeat of the string of strikes in vehicle part plants that hit southern China last year. Instead, anecdotal evidence suggests the workers' lot has improved as a tight labour market lifted wages by between 20 to 30 percent from a year ago. Factories on the other hand complain of rising costs and falling margins.
"We should create 45 million new jobs in urban areas, 40 million new jobs for people migrating from rural areas and control the urban registered jobless rate within 5 percent in the five-year plan period," the statement said. It added that China faces substantial job creation pressures as there are on average one million more people seeking employment each year up to 2015, compared with the last five years.
China's economy has slowed this year as forceful domestic monetary policy tightening and Europe's festering debt crisis hurt consumer confidence and demand. Factory production and exports were at their weakest in at least two years in November. During the 2008 financial crisis, China estimated that at least 20 million Chinese workers were thrown out of their jobs and 670,000 small firms forced out of business.
China does not publish reliable jobs data. Its only measure of unemployment is an urban jobless rate that is narrow in scope due to its exclusion of farmers and the 153 million migrant workers who have moved to urban areas to earn a living. The measure showed the urban jobless rate has hovered between 4.1-4.3 percent since June 2009.